Along Remsen Street, progress grows
It’s been a year since fire ravaged downtown Cohoes. Today, the city has dusted off the ashes and is blooming again.
As “a tornado of fire” ripped through Remsen Street a year ago, Louis Rizzo called 911 from his business, Rizzo’s House of Flowers. The f lames spread across the street before jumping the roadway to set his store ablaze.
“It was so hot you couldn’t open the front door” of his shop at 233 Remsen St., Rizzo said.
These days, the store has a new entrance. But Rizzo can point out where minor damage lingers, and he said that as he has repaired and rebuilt the shop over the past 365 days, the toughest part has been dealing with the water damage inside the three-story building.
The Nov. 30, 2017, fire destroyed or damaged 28 buildings and caused $4 million in damages in the middle of downtown. Firefighters battled the inferno for hours before extinguishing it.
Cohoes business owners and residents said the catastrophic fire is ingrained in their memories but hasn’t stopped them from rebuilding, and they’re waiting for the city’s plans to redevelop the now-
vacant lots from Columbia Street to 220 Remsen St. with one large mixed-use building containing apartments and businesses.
The fire began behind 228 Remsen St., where John Gomes was trying to bend metal over a barrel fire in an apparent attempt to emulate the History Channel television series “Forged in Fire,” about bladesmithing. Gomes was sentenced in June to a year in the Albany County jail for fourth-degree arson.
Sandy Kershaw and her husband spent six weeks away from their home at 229 Remsen St. The Watervlietgreen Island aerial ladder truck melted outside their residence. Kershaw pointed to the doorbell, showing where it had partially melted. There is a new doorbell ready to be installed.
“The vinyl siding melted and looked like cake frosting,” Kershaw said.
Smoke, fire and water damage was inflicted not just on Remsen Street between Columbia and Howard streets, but on blocks in all directions as the flames jumped from building to building.
Since the city began its recovery, the narrative has been rebuilding and reinvestment.
Don Russell’s restaurants, Donnie Magoos at 165 Remsen St. and Spindles at Remsen at 241 Remsen, were damaged, but Russell has recovered and is investing on the fire-torn block.
Russell purchased 220 Remsen St., where he has finished work on two apartments and is starting a new Italian restaurant, Anthony’s, that will open in March or April 2019.
“That building was slated for demolition. We saved it,” Russell said.
The building, which dates to before 1870, is on the north side of what is now a vacant lot where the fire wiped out the buildings, which collapsed into piles of rubble.
Russell relocated to Cohoes from Troy nearly five years ago. “I could see the potential in Cohoes. You have a great walkable downtown with direct access to I-87 and 787,” he said.
Plus three years of no property tax increases is inviting to business, Russell said.
The city has attempted to negotiate the purchase of what is now vacant property at the center of the fire, which was whipped by winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour, Mayor Shawn Morse said.
A deal hasn’t been reached because the property owner is facing tax and legal issues, the mayor said. He anticipates that the city could take title to the now-empty land on the west side of Remsen Street between Russell’s building and Columbia Street within a year.
Morse said there are no firm plans for the site since the city doesn’t own the property.
For the past three years, Morse has prioritized the economic redevelopment of Remsen Street, from a reinvigorated Cohoes Music Hall at the north end of the downtown thoroughfare, as well as residential development. Both are taking place, with the city hiring an outside firm to run the music hall and assisting developers in revitalizing the Cohoes Hotel and empty lots with apartments.
“This end of Remsen Street is starting a renaissance,” said Morse, whose City Hall office is within site of the music hall and Canal Square Park, now undergoing redevelopment with space for outdoor performances. He has estimated that new building and office reinvestment will pump close to $50 million into downtown.
The city has been working its way south down Remsen to improve the streetscape with new sidewalks and other developments. The sidewalks south of Howard Street in front of the wiped-out area on Remsen Street won’t be touched until a new building is erected because the city doesn’t want to rip up new sidewalks during construction, Morse said.
The goal is to repopulate Remsen Street with new residents, who will in turn support new businesses, Morse said. Part of the plan is to develop parking within a block’s walk to Remsen Street in areas where buildings were damaged by the fire or don’t have a productive future.
Becky Chamberlain, who lives on Van Schaick Island, was on Remsen Street Thursday looking across at the vacant lots where the fire was the most intense. She said she’s waiting to see new construction start.
But with only a year since the fire, she’s patient: “It hasn’t been that long,” she said.